The Puzzle Book
by FoxyKit22
Summary: L Lawliet at a young age decided that instead of solving puzzles, he rather enjoyed creating them. And so, instead of a detective, he became the world’s unbeatable cryptologist L. However, the unbeatable has just been beaten. L-Light.
1. Accidents vs Serendipity

The Puzzle Book

The Puzzle Book

Word Count: 2,247

Summary: L Lawliet at a young age decided that instead of solving puzzles, he rather enjoyed creating them. And so, instead of a detective, he became the world's unbeatable cryptologist L. However, the unbeatable has just been beaten. L-Light.

AN: Finally, after a summer of planning and research, I have actually posted this first chapter of The Puzzle Book. This is based off of a plot bunny that was first originally created by **TimeTravelFreak** (**IJ)**, and I can only hope that I wrote what was first imagined. This will be a lot more epic then other things that I have written and I am extremely excited about it. The first chapter is rather short, but mostly because I see it as a prologue of sorts. As for A New Life, I am definitely still working on it and should have the new chapter out sometime soon. I have most of it completed already. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Chapter 1: Accidents vs. Serendipity

Light stared at his sister's form on the sterilized hospital bed. She looked so peaceful asleep, something he wasn't sure he would ever see again only a few short hours ago. It was his fault that she was here; that she was hurt. It was his fault that his mother was sleeping restlessly in the corner chair, tear streaks still on her face. It was his fault that his father was in the waiting room probably on his 7th cup of coffee. It was his fault; his stupid 'genius', stupid confidence; that his precious baby sister almost died.

A small, rasping cough interrupted his dark thoughts. He watched as his sister's small body wracked with the internal force of her coughs that couldn't seem to leave her lungs. They couldn't leave the body that was wrapped in multiple layers of gauze. He stared at her perfect, unblemished face that had an oxygen tube wrapped around as she fell back into a deep sleep. She was lucky to still have her pretty, untouched face. The rest of her body, however, would be covered with scars for most if not all the remainder of her life and would have to undergo various treatments.

He lowered his gaze away from her still form and towards his hands in his lap. He was the genius of the family and he had thought the two of them would be fine without their parents, but it seemed that he was wrong at some things. He had convinced his parents that he was more than able, being so intelligent, to take Sayu to the park near their neighborhood alone. On the way there they had been playing a game that the two had come up with called 10,000 Questions. The game and its title had come from a conversation in which Light had accused Sayu of having 10,000 questions to bother him with. Since then, the two had created the game where Sayu would ask questions and Light would answer them, and if he did not know the answer then he would look it up and learn everything he could about the subject. It benefited them both as Sayu's 4-year old curiosity would be quenched and Light's intellect and confidence would grow.

They had started the game, as always, with a simple question, but as they continued to walk the questions became more like questions of how to do various actions. The topic of conversation had turn to survival in the wilderness as they reached the park. Light, who had wanted to show off his intelligence, told Sayu that he knew how to start a fire with only two rocks and some dry wood. Sayu, excited, asked him to show her, swearing that she would not believe him until she saw it herself. Confident with his own abilities, Light sat down on the dry ground and had slowly sparked the rocks, lighting a small fire small twigs that Sayu had gathered. Things had quickly gotten out of hand and now Sayu was in the hospital, the playground was in a crisp, and Light had arson on his record at the young age of 7.

Light closed his eyes and leaned back in the uncomfortable chair. Although no on had said anything, Light could feel the blame being put onto him. He could see it in their eyes. Not from Sayu, his sister would never blame anything on him since he was her hero, but Light knew what his parents were thinking, even if it was unwillingly. A terrible accident had occurred and the injured ones had to put the blame somewhere in order to stay sane; it was only human nature. They were obviously blaming him for the accident, which was altogether not unreasonable, as he was the older one, the genius, and the one who should have been more responsible.

He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, angry suddenly. He understood that his parents were just scared and emotional, but he hated that he was being blamed for this. Wasn't it enough that he blamed himself, but now the people he cared for most in the world were blaming him as well? Now that he thought about it, intelligence really brought nothing but chaos to anyone. The people with power and the people with brains were always the ones getting blamed for everything, because they hadn't predicted something right or they hadn't known something that they apparently should have. The people of the world followed them blindly along like sheep, and when something went wrong they immediately blame the people with intellect and power. It was ridiculous. He knew in the back of his mind that his parents' blame would only last as long as their emotional states and that he was irrational connecting two different instances together, but his fury and hatred grew as he continued thinking about how terrible it was to be considered a genius. Hot, angry tears ran slowly down his cheeks as he opened his eyes, showing the determination of a set declaration he was about to make.

_If being a genius gets me into trouble, then I won't be one anymore!_

* * *

Light's plan worked for all of about 2 weeks. He had tried to stay true to his promise to rid himself of his intellect and be a normal person, but had come to realize that he could only hide his genius, not destroy it. He had quickly gotten bored with not using the full capacity of his brain and had found ways to sooth his boredom without showing his intelligence off, which was why he was slowly making his way towards the Waseda University library.

It was October again, almost a full year since the accident with Sayu in the park, and Light was now 8 years old. October was his favorite month of the year. It had his favorite type of weather, he was convinced that everyone was a lot more cheerful, and it contained Halloween, his favorite holiday. It was the one time that you could see a person's true colors. It was when people could be who they really were and what they've always wanted to be, instead of who they always pretended to be. Sayu wanted to be a beauty queen this year. Light was planning on being Batman.

Light quickly went up the steps and slipped into the library quietly as he had been doing for the past 11 months. He had been doing this everyday after school since the accident, allowing his mind to grow and wander. He had told his parents that he had joined a club at school, but instead came to the university everyday to study and learn by himself. During the day, in school and around his family, he was a normal, average, everyday boy, but while he was alone, he soothed his boredom by reading and learning about everything and anything. In his spare time, he had started playing the 10,000 question game with Sayu, but had started to become more in depth with his answers and started teaching her above her 4-year old age. Of course with her newly founded expansive knowledge, Sayu was considered the genius of the family, while Light looked on as the proud older brother. The situation suited Light just fine; he owed Sayu everything.

Inside the library everything was quiet; something Light loved. This was a place that he could reflect quietly by himself, be himself, and have solitude. As he made his way over to his normal desk, he watched a woman follow him out of the corner of his eye. This woman had been there everyday for he past two months watching him, and it was starting to get on his nerves. At first, he watched her watch him out of the corner of his eyes, curious and a little worried as to why she was so interested in him. It had gone on like that for half a week; the two watching each other, before Light had judged that there was no danger present and had gone back to his intensive studying. However, the woman had just not given up as he supposed she might, and had continued to study him with the pretense of scholarly studying in the form of a large law book in front of her.

Today her stare was just grating his nerves. Pushing his new book away, he stood up and stalked over to the woman, who was watching him with a small smirk on her face. He stood before her and bowed slightly.

"I was wondering how long it would take you before you would come over here." The voice made him look up and into her amused eyes. This was the first time he really had the chance to study her up close, and not from subtle glances and peripheral vision. She was older than he thought she was at first, maybe in her late 50's. She was a foreigner, most likely from Western Europe with dark brown hair and blue eyes. She had wrinkles around her face that softened the features, but Light couldn't help but feel like the woman in front of him was anything but soft.

Without any hesitation, the older woman leaned back in her chair and spoke, looking Light straight in the eyes. "You are Yagami Raito, age 8, son of Soichiro and Sachiko Yagami. You were born February 28th, 1986 and have Type A blood. You have a younger sister, Sayu, who is 3 years younger than you are, and you father works at the NPA's Kanto Region Bureau. You were set to take IQ tests and placement tests last year after a teacher suggested that your intelligence may be abnormally higher than children your age, but the tests were canceled per your instructions and your grades in school, while still slightly higher than normal, dropped last year around November. However, while you appear to be an average 8-year old boy, you enjoy theoretical math, law philosophy, and dark romance literature, and have a basic understanding of English and French, both of which you taught yourself. Need I go on?" the woman finished with her smirk plastered on her face again. Light was beginning to find it annoying.

"How do you know all of this?" he asked with narrowed eyes, trying to look intimidating in his 8-year old body.

The woman laughed slightly at his glare. "After watching you devour books on multiple subjects I became curious, and when I found that you weren't a known child prodigy I was even more interested. It surprised me to find your face and name on a children delinquents list. I never would have guessed that you would be an arsonist, and only found out by stumbling upon it."

Light turned away at the mention of his file. No one but his family and the officers involved really knew about what happened that November day last year, and it bothered him that some stranger would bring it up in a conversation that they shouldn't be having. He turned back to the woman. "Who are you? And why are you bothering me?" he asked firmly.

A gleam appeared in her eyes as she leaned forward to stare him in the eye. With her sitting down, the two were at the same height, and although she had that dumb smirk still on her face, there was an air of seriousness that made Light tense up a little. "My name is Sophie, but I am known as Seven, and you are going to be _my_ prodigy and protégé."

The atmosphere between the two was edgy as silence reigned, before Light burst out into peals of mocking laughter. "Ha, yeah. Sure, I'll be your protégé. You're crazy, woman. Stop stalking me and go bother someone else."

Light turned around and was about to walk away when the woman's voice invaded his thoughts again. "Don't try to fool yourself, Yagami-kun. No matter how much you try to hide it, you're curious and extremely intuitive and intelligent by nature, and your silly plan of concealing that nature has made you bored. I can help you with that. I can teach you everything you would ever want to know and can't get from a book."

Light by this point had turned around again. "Why should I trust you?" he asked suspiciously.

The woman stood up. "You shouldn't." As she was turning away, she paused and glanced back. "Yagami-kun, everyone knows the story of curiosity and the cat, but what no one ever talks about is whether the curiosity killed the cat because the curiosity was fulfilled and the action of snooping around killed it, or whether the cat was killed because the curiosity was left alone and it ate at the cat from the inside. You know the agonizing boredom of not being able to satiate your inquisitiveness, which do you think killed it?"

With that said, the woman, Sophie, turned and walked away, leaving Light to stare at her departing back. "Meet me outside the steps tomorrow with your answer, Yagami-kun."

The next day Light met Sophie outside the University library steps and only offered her a nod which she returned with her smirk.


	2. The Puzzle Book

The Puzzle Book

Word Count: 4,359

Summary: L Lawliet at a young age decided that instead of solving puzzles, he rather enjoyed creating them. And so, instead of a detective, he became the world's unbeatable cryptologist L. However, the unbeatable has just been beaten. L-Light.

AN: Wow, I already got reviews. You guys are pretty awesome. **Viskii**, thanks for my first review, and I'm glad that you liked it enough to review only after the first chapter. **CrazyBlueFlamingo**, sorry for stealing the plot bunny from underneath you. I just hope that I won't disappoint you with my story. **AuraBlackWolf**, glad you liked it! I have plans for bringing in the arson and accident later. I needed an accident and just thought it would be fun to give perfect Light a huge red mark on his file. **TimeTravelFreak**, the inspiration! Thanks so much for the complements. I hope this turns out to be everything you hoped it would be. **Black-Dranzer-1119**, **.Black, **and **Myu-dono** thanks for the lovely reviews!

Happy Birthday to the craziest detective out there, and Happy Halloween to everyone else!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Chapter 2: The Puzzle Book

Light hugged his coat to him a little tighter as he walked home from his high school. It was February which meant entrance exams were coming up. His parents kept bothering him about studying for them, but what they didn't know was that Light wasn't planning on attending any universities. In fact, he thought it would be rather pointless and wasteful to do so. He already had a job that paid extremely well and he knew everything that a university could teach him. Besides, he wouldn't have even gotten into a really great school with his grades and the public school that he was going to. It didn't matter much to him anyways, not with the life he and Sophie had created for him.

Sophie. He sighed thinking about her. He hadn't seen or heard much from her for the past 5 years. He wasn't even sure if she was still alive with her type of job. When he had agreed to be her protégé he hadn't realized what exactly he was getting into. He had assumed she was a researcher, or a professor, or a political fiend even. What he wasn't expecting, though, was that she was the infamous mercenary Seven. She was pretty much a minion for hire; doing assassinations, undercover spy missions, and bodyguard work for various country governments and underworld factions. Whoever paid the highest would be her employer, and since she was the best at what she did, she certainly created enough competition to have a luxurious life-style. His education under her was unquestionably an eventful and unpredictable one.

His own job that he had assumed was almost the complete opposite of Sophie's own. He had chosen to become a detective, much like his father, and led his life catching some of the people that Sophie worked with. Sophie, of course, wasn't that upset with her protégé. It was always helpful to have someone who was supposed to be an enemy on her side. He could cover for her if she was ever being sought out by people she didn't want to find her. Her profit in the shadier parts of the job certainly went down, but no one ever connected her with the newly famous detective One.

Light smiled at the thought of his alias. The name had come purely from teasing her about her own pseudonym. He had once asked what her name stood for, and had received the answer that she was called Seven because a person needed to go through at least seven people to contact her. Light had thought it was rather ridiculous and had thrown her customary smirk back at her, saying that now they only needed One. He had gotten a smack upside the head for that. Sophie apparently found her smirk as annoying as Light did when used against her.

He had created One when he was 12 in order to alleviate his boredom whenever Sophie would leave for one of her longer missions. He was so used to having to constantly work his mind with her that whenever she left it created a void that was hard to fill with his everyday life at school and home. So, when he was 12, he created the alter ego One, setting up offshore accounts, fake ids, and online records. Most of it was pretty easy with the training he had received from Sophie. He first started with small cases, taking on ones that didn't pay much, as it was intended only as a hobby. But, as time had progressed, he started taking more challenging cases and started to make some real money the year after Sophie left. While he wasn't a household name and didn't have much standing with governments around the world, he was rather famous for never losing a case. Light smiled to himself- and all at the age of 17.

As he turned the corner, a small black book caught his eye. Looking around, he found no one near who the book could potentially belong to. Curious, he walked over to it and picked it up, noticing the front cover was blank. He flipped through the small notebook and was surprised to find various codes and algorithms on its pages. He flipped back to the front and read the inside cover. It was written in English.

_A Challenge to You who finds the Puzzle Book,_

Light rolled his eyes. What kind of name was Puzzle Book? Most people would have tried to be a little more creative with the title.

_Do you think you have the intelligence to face this book? Take part in the global competition of the Puzzle Book and see for yourself. Inside this book are various puzzles, riddles, and codes that we challenge you to break. For each code broken, a reward of 20,000 US dollars will be given to the competitor. When completed, send to:_

_William James_

_Billy's Books_

_Baxter Street_

_LONDON_

_HP17 3ES_

_GREAT BRITAIN_

_Make sure to send a return address with the notebook in order to receive the next copy and the check for however many puzzles you complete. Good luck._

Light read over the letter one more time, before flipping through the notebook interested. There were at least 40 different codes in the notebook, which meant close to 800,000 dollars if completed. It was almost ridiculous how much money whatever organization this was, was willing to give away in the competition. Looking at the codes, however, Light could see why a lot of people would be unable to solve them. It seemed like at least one person owned the book before Light, with all the scribbles and writings on the edges of some of the codes, and had gotten no where. Light tucked the book into his bag. Well, even if he wasn't rewarded the money, the codes could keep him amused for now while he waited for another big case.

Light quickly made his way home and up to his room without anyone really noticing. He pulled out the notebook and threw the bag and its contents to the side, turning on his desk lamp. He pulled out a regular notebook and a pencil, before opening the Puzzle Book once more. The first code in the book wasn't very hard. It was a standard transposition cipher, where the letters were scrambled. Closing his eyes gently, Light was able to view the cipher in his mind and work out the problem. Opening his eyes, he quickly wrote down the answer; fconstyle. The answer didn't make much sense to him, but the puzzle seemed only to be a geometric transposition in the shape of a dodecagon. Not difficult at all. The people who had the book before him must have been idiots.

Flipping the page he went onto the next one, surprised to find this one harder. It was another transposition cipher but seemed to be scrambled in various language alphabets. He recognized Greek, English, Chinese, and Russian, but there was also another one that he couldn't tell what it was exactly. It looked like Arabic, but the calligraphy style was one he had never encountered before. He thought about it for few moments before coming to the realization that it was the inversed mirror image of the Arabic calligraphy Thuluth. He briefly puzzled over what his course of action was before deciding to first translate the text first before proceeding. He spent a few minutes trying that plan, but continually hit a brick wall. It looked as if he would have to go the other way around, first using probability to solve the transposition code, before translating the entire cipher. Light grinned to himself. These kinds of things were solved by supercomputers usually, taking minutes. It would take him hours. He could get lost in the Puzzle Book for days.

The front door opening and closing caught his attention. His sister Sayu must be home. From his room he could hear his mother greeting Sayu and asking for the test she should be getting back today. He quietly made his way downstairs and was there in time to see his mother pull a proud Sayu into a hug.

"Congratulations! I knew you were going to do wonderful", Light's mother said to the bashful girl in front of her. Light loved that about his sister, that she could be so intelligent and have every reason to be prideful, but was so humble in many ways. He watched as she pulled her on her extra long sleeves of her shirt. It was a nervous habit of hers, covering up her scars.

"Yes- congratulations, Sayu", Light said, making his way down the rest of the steps. "I'm glad our studying came to good use for one of us." Sayu grinned at him, rolling her eyes slightly so that their mother wouldn't notice. Sayu was the only one in the family, only one besides Sophie really, who knew of Light's true potential. How couldn't she when Light would help prepare her for all her exams and teach her about anything she wanted to know?

"I am just about finished preparing dinner. You two can eat quickly before heading off to your cram schools", their mother said, turning back to the kitchen. "Your father should be home soon, so set another sitting for him."

The two got to work setting up the table for dinner, discussing how their days had gone. By the time their mother came in with the food, the two were done and already sitting down and their father was in the front foyer.

"Hello, everyone", their father said as he sat down at the table. "Sorry to rush, but we have a new case that just came up that I need to work on back at headquarters. I just wanted to stop by to have some dinner, and see how Sayu did on her exam, before heading back out."

"Will you be gone all night? You know how I hate when you pull all-nighters at work", Sachiko said, serving him his dish.

"Yes, unfortunately. This look likes a hard one. We're even debating on whether to bring some outside help", Soichiro said, eating as delicately as possible, while still shoving food in his mouth.

Light turned to his father, interested. "What's the case, father?" he asked politely.

"A serial murderer. We think he's somehow involved with the underground organization that calls themselves the Shinigami, but he also seems to be getting his own pleasure out of killing his victims, and I mean that in more than one way. Anyway, it's always tricky when working around mafia-type groups like this one", his father explained.

"So, what, he rapes his victims before he kills them?" Light asked, curious.

"No, he finds pleasure in death, or so we believe. The sexual experience occurs postmortem", Soichiro said intrigued, but disgusted.

"No more of this talk during dinner. It's not appropriate while we're eating", Sachiko said reprimanding. The two men dropped their heads in acquiescence.

Soichiro looked at Light thoughtfully from the corner of his eyes. "If you're really interested in the cases I work on, you should look into becoming a detective yourself. You certainly interrogate me enough about my work to be a detective", he said to Light.

Light looked away, hiding his give-away eyes. Secretly he was amused, but he had to play his part. "I don't think my grades are good enough to get into a good university, and the NPA only accept the best. I'm actually thinking of waiting a semester, at least, before applying to a college, getting some work experience and earning some of my own money." It was the first time that he had ever mentioned anything to his parents about his plans, and he was curious as to how they would react.

He turned to his family, and found them all shocked, Sayu most of all. However, Sayu also seemed to put it together quickly and nodded. "I think it's a good idea for you, Raito. You have always seemed to more of a hands-on type of person, and I think obtaining some quality work experience is exactly what you need." That seemed to ease the tension in his parents' eyes. Anything Sayu agreed with was usually right.

"Well, I'm off", their father said, finishing up the rest of his dinner. Light was glad that his parents left the college topic as it was. "I'll see everyone tomorrow." He leaned forward and kissed his wife and daughter on the heads, and nodded to Light before making his way back to the door.

"We better be going as well, mother", Sayu said, finishing her own meal. "Thank you for dinner."

"Yes, thank you, mother. Would you like either of us to help clean this up?" Light asked, ever the gentleman.

His mother patted his hand lightly. "No, you two go ahead. You have studying to do. I'll clean up here; you just focus on your studies."

Sayu and Light made their way back to the front door. Sayu picked up her things from the ground where she had dropped them earlier as Light ran upstairs to get his own books. Before leaving his room, he grabbed the Puzzle Book and threw that into his book bag as well.

"So what's on the agenda, tonight?' Sayu asked when the two were outside. Instead of actually going to a cram school, Light had become Sayu's own personal teacher. He taught her everything she needed to know for school, anything she would need to know for extra credit, and things that Sayu wasn't even sure why she would ever need to know at all. Sometimes they even skipped an educational lesson at all and he just took her to the gym to teach her how to punch or self-defense. Sayu didn't mind. She loved learning from her brother. He had this way of making a person challenge their own limits and push past them without the person ever realizing what was going on.

"I actually found an interesting book that I want you to look at", Light said as the two jumped on a bus toward the city. They were going to the university library where Light had first met Sophie.

"So literature today?" Sayu asked excitedly. Literature and history were her two favorite subjects. Math and science were too straight forward for her liking. She preferred the confusing and enigmatic nature of the people of history and the character of literature.

Light smiled at her excitement. "No, but I think you'll like it just the same. It's a puzzle book, and it's quite hard", he explained to her.

"Hard?" Sayu asked with her grin still present. "Hard for me? Or hard for you? Because if it's hard for you then I give up right now."

Light let out a gentle laugh. Sayu was the only one that ever really made him laugh. Sophie made him smirk and snort, and his parents usually received a smile, but Sayu was the only one who could find the true him under his layers of masks. He wasn't the only one that she did that with either. She had such a genuine nature to her that everyone around became her instant friend and became more of themselves with her. She was easily the most popular student in her school.

"Never give up before you try something, Sayu. It's unbecoming. Besides, I might need your help with a few of them. Whoever created these codes is good at languages and we both know that you're the better one out of the two of us when it comes to languages", Light said, smile still gracing his features.

Sayu rolled her eyes, and glanced away as she always did at complements. "Don't be ridiculous. You're the one who taught me to be so good at them. I would be no where if it weren't for you", she said blushing.

Light frowned slightly. He hated when she said that. There were a lot of things that she would be if it wasn't for him, safe, unharmed, and normal were a few that came to mind, but intelligent certainly wasn't one. It was true that he taught her many things and that he helped her with her studying, but the intellect was all her own. She only needed motivation and a push from her over-protective brother to get her moving. After that, it was pure momentum that kept her moving.

He mentally pushed the darker thoughts away and brought his more playful side forward. "Do not give up, young grasshopper. One day you will surpass even your noble and handsome teacher."

"Ah yes… _The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery_; Mark Van Doren", Sayu said, her eyes challenging.

"Finally giving me some credit. Anyways, you think I'm doing this for you? Ha. I'm doing this for myself. After all: _To teach is to learn twice_; Joseph Joubert, Pensées, 1842", Light said, answering the challenge.

Sayu made a disgusted face. "How do you remember that kind of stuff? The people are hard enough", she replied. "And I do give you credit. _Give credit where credit is due_; common proverb."

Light smiled to her. "I remember everything. Anyways, I'll see your quote and raise you one more. _Teaching is leaving a vestige of one self in the development of another. And surely the student is a bank where you can deposit your most precious treasures_; Eugene P. Bertin. Treasures, Sayu. I'm gifting you with my knowledge, and you know the saying, _never look a gift horse in the mouth_; common proverb."

Sayu rolled her eyes, before concentrating. "Hmmm", she said. "Ok, well, you are not always going to be here to bestow upon me your 'treasures' and I think you should start living by the sayings of Thomas Carruthers: _A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary_."

"You want me to leave? Alright, after all, _experience is the best teacher_; common proverb", Light responded. He laughed joyfully at Sayu's panicked face at his last quotation. He grasped her face between his hands tightly, shaking her head back and forth. "Don't worry, Sayu-chan, _a good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to __**light**__ the way for others_."

Sayu yanked her face out of her annoying brother's hands. "Who said that one?" she asked, challengingly. "You know if you don't answer that I finally win a round."

Light paused for a second, before smirking. "Anonymous."

"That's a lie!" Sayu accused, eyes narrowed. Light just shrugged as he stepped off the bus at their stop. Sayu followed Light off the bus with a huff, before heading towards the large university library with him.

"So let me see this puzzle book of yours", Sayu commanded holding out her hand. Light smiled at her tenacity, but reached into his bag and handed her the book. He watched as she read the front, recognizing the English immediately, before flipping through its pages.

"This looks difficult", Sayu commented, handing the book back to Light. She glanced at him curiously. "Do you really think that this bookstore will give money to whoever finished the puzzles? Isn't that a little too idealistic?"

"Yes, I believe it is incredibly idealistic", Light said with a small smile. "However, I also feel like it's a good challenge. We can work on it for an hour together, then we can start on your homework. You also have your high school placement exams coming up that we should continue studying for."

Sayu nodded, glancing at the puzzle book in Light's hands once more. The two were silent as the walked closer and closer to the library. Out of the corner of his eyes, Light could see Sayu playing with her sleeved and had a look of fierce contemplation. He knew what she wanted to ask and wondered how long it would take her to ask it.

Finally, Sayu looked over to him, "Why are you not going to college? Don't tell me you're going to quit school like you've quit everything else in your life."

Light sighed. "I haven't quit anything. I just-"

"That such a lie, Raito", Sayu interrupted, annoyed. "Tennis, swimming, gymnastics, martial arts, star student- everything you have ever worked for. When are you ever going to just be yourself, and do what you want to do?"

Light waited until she was finished with her rant, before speaking himself, calmly. "I don't _quit_ things, Sayu. I just don't continue things in public. Haven't the two of us played tennis, gone swimming? Haven't I taught you judo and aikido, or practiced gymnastics with you? I just don't like the attention that being great gives me."

"You mean you don't like the _responsibility_ that being the _best_ gives you." Light had to admit, she was quick on the come-backs, and on the up-take it seemed. "You might be able to lie to everyone else Raito, maybe even to yourself, but don't try to lie to me. You would love the attention that being the best gives to someone, you are an attention hog, but you are scared of the responsibility because you think that you'll mess up again."

Light was silent.

"You were only 7, Raito. We were young. It was not your fault", Sayu spoke quietly.

"There's no need for college. I already have a job", Light said, moving the subject away from the accident.

"What? The one at the dessert café?" Sayu asked skeptical. "You don't even like a lot of sweets."

Light puffed up defensively. "It's a coffee shop. It just happens to have a bakery in the shop as well." The library loomed ahead. "Let's just forget about this right now. You know you can trust me."

The conversation ended there.

* * *

Light looked at the piece of paper in front of him incredulously. He and Sayu had not worked on The Puzzle Book together since the first day, but Light continued to work on it himself whenever he had time at work, school, or home. He had finished it a week and a half ago, and had sent both it and a public post office address to the competition headquarters under the name of Kira. He had thought the name would be ironic and completely contrary to his true self. The rest of the codes had been extremely difficult and had kept up every night and busy everyday. It was probably one of the most challenging things he had ever participated in.

Now, in his shaking hands, he held a check for 780,000 US dollars. In the other hand he held a cd with a note that read,

_Congratulations Kira,_

_You have been the first to successfully complete the mysteries of The Puzzle Book. The cd included contains the next copy of The Puzzle Book. Complete the riddles on the laptop provided and return it to Billy's Books in order to receive your reward of 30,000 US dollars per code. Good luck._

He looked down at the package at his feet. He assumed that it was the laptop. He stuffed the check, note, and cd back into the envelope that they were enclosed in and looked around. He was outside the post office, so there were no cameras in the immediate vicinity, but he was still in public and with a huge blank check. Picking up the package and placing the envelope into his book bag, he left quickly to make his way towards his home. He needed to place the check into his offshore, privatized bank account that he used for One. He also needed to set up another account for his sister. He'll call her Two for right now. There was much to do before he could start on the next Puzzle Book

* * *

In Germany, a group of people sat around a table. In the middle of a table sat an untapped phone.

"So the codes actually worked?" asked one the men in the shadows.

"It would appear so", another answered.

"Whose idea was this- the Puzzle Book?" a deep voice from the phone asked.

"A lower-ranked member, King. His name is Ryuk, sir. We only printed one for each of our main headquarter countries; United States, England, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, China, Japan, and Australia. We never thought that the plan would actually work. Ryuk is not known to be one of the most intelligent of our associates. It is only lucky that someone of this code-breaker's intelligence found one with updated codes", another voice from the phone answered, this one female.

"Perhaps you should increase his rank for his competence", the King responded after some silence. "The code-breaker…who is it?"

"We do not know, King", a male spoke with an accent from the room.

"He seems to call himself Kira, sir. Killer, in Japanese, King. He, despite his name, does not seem to know who he is sending the codes to. We have sent him a check and a cd of new codes that our own code-breakers could not solve", another man explained.

There was silence again. "Continue on as is. We may have to involve ourselves a little more intimately at a later date, but for now we'll let everything continue on it's own", the deep voice said, finishing the meeting.

Elsewhere around the world governments and organizations alike were finding themselves missing crucial pieces of information in various areas. They were all frantic with the thought that an enemy government had accessed their files, and their country would be put on ransom, or World War Three would soon begin. They all seemed to be thinking the same thing, asking the same questions. How did this happen? Who had the capabilities of accessing and stealing their classified information? What was going to happen? How do they prepare for it? And, most importantly, where was L when you needed him?

At a small bungalow in the Caribbean the MC Hammer song "Can't Touch This" filled the room as a phone rang. Two pale fingers reached out and gently picked up the 14-year-old-red-head-genius contaminated phone, and held it to an equally pale ear.

"Yes, Watari?"

* * *

AN: Hope everyone enjoys this new chapter. Stay safe this Halloween night, and I hope everyone had a fun mischief night last night!


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